Invincible Spirit Earns Honourable Retirement at 27

A consequence of massive book sizes is that it has become even harder for a less obvious prospective stallion to break into the elite tier. However, just as many seemingly excellent stallion prospects over the years have failed to make the grade, and there is still scope for a stallion to succeed against the odds, to 'pull himself up by his bootstraps', to join the elite after having started out considerably farther down the ladder. One such has been the admirable Invincible Spirit (Ire), whose retirement from active service at the Irish National Stud at the age of 27 has been announced.

Invincible Spirit was a very good horse and a very fast horse but, although he won a maiden race at Goodwood and the Hornblower Stakes at Ripon as a two-year-old, he didn't make the frame in a Group race until he was four and didn't show top-class form until he was five. In fact, notwithstanding that had won the G3 MacDonagh Boland Stakes at the Curragh as an autumn four-year-old in 2001 and the G3 Duke Of York on the first run of his five-year-old season in 2002, it was not until his final (and 17th) start that, as an autumn five-year-old, he properly secured his place at stud, which he did by landing a shock 25/1 victory in the G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup.

Invincible Spirit's pedigree was a big asset to him. Coming from a family which has served his owner/breeder Prince Faisal well, he was a son of the 1990 G1 Prix de Diane heroine Rafha (GB) (Kris {GB}). Furthermore, his sire Green Desert was respected as a sire of stallions as well as racehorses. Consequently, a fee of €10,000 seemed reasonable when he began covering at the Irish National Stud in the spring of 2003 under the management of former CEO John Clarke. Latterly, his career was guided by John Osborne then Cathal Beale.

It is probably fair to say that initially the general expectation was that his role would most likely be to help 'commercial' breeders to produce stock who might appeal to the market's seemingly insatiable desire for relatively inexpensive speed. In time, he would prove to be much, much more significant than that.

Invincible Spirit got off to the best possible start by siring the winner of the Brocklesby Stakes in 2006, the first two-year-old race of Britain's new turf season going to the Bill Turner-trained Spoof Master (Ire), who had been bought for £15,000 at the previous autumn's St Leger Yearling Sale at Doncaster. In time, Spoof Master would go on to give his own little demonstration that Invincible Spirit was not merely a one-dimensional sire of precocious juveniles because he raced until he was nine.

The collective results of Invincible Spirit's first juveniles were solid: within Great Britain and Ireland he was represented by 28 individual winners in 2006 who between them won 50 races. This was enough for him to sneak into the top 50 in the General Sires' Table, a very good achievement for a relatively inexpensive horse with only one crop representing him. This was reflected in his stud fee, which shot up to €35,000 in 2007. Within another 12 months, even that rapidly inflated figure was looking a terrific bargain.

During the 2007 season, the seed really burst into flower. Getting a Classic winner in his first crop does not, of course, guarantee long-term success for a stallion, but it is as good a start as any. That is exactly what Invincible Spirit did, courtesy of Lawman (Fr) who landed the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club in the early summer of 2007, beating Literato (Fr) who went on to win the G1 Champion S. four months later. This triumph was sandwiched between wins in the G3 Prix de Guiche over 1800m and the G1 Prix Jean Prat over 1600m. Lawman himself went on to enjoy great success in his first few years at stud, with his first crop containing the 2012 G1 St. James's Palace S. winner Most Improved (Ire) and the 2013 G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Just The Judge (Ire) being the star of his second batch.

Notwithstanding that his best son that year never raced outside France, Invincible Spirit finished in 16th place in the General Sires' Table of Great Britain and Ireland in 2007. He was given plenty of help by his second-crop daughter Fleeting Spirit (Ire) whose two-year-old season saw her successful over five furlongs in the G3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood and the G2 Flying Childers at Doncaster, as well as finishing second in the G2 Lowther Stakes at York and to subsequent G1 1,000 Guineas heroine Natagora (Fr) in the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket.

Thereafter, Invincible Spirit became a permanent fixture in the upper reaches of the table. He broke into the top ten in 2008, when he finished seventh, and he remained in the top ten for 13 straight seasons with the sole exception of 2013, when he finished 11th. For the 2008 season his fee rose significantly again to €75,000 and, while this proved slightly hard for the market to swallow at the time, his continued success saw him standing for six-figure sums from 2015 to 2020 inclusive.

Breeding in Ireland during that period was dominated, of course, by Galileo. That great horse won his first sires' championship in 2008 and then was champion sire in the 11 seasons from 2010 to 2020 inclusive. During these 12 years, Dubawi (Ire) finished second to him four times and Montjeu (Ire) twice. Otherwise, six stallions were runner-up. Invincible Spirit was one of these, finishing second in the table in 2014. That was the year of Kingman (GB), his best son who deservedly ended the year as Cartier Horse of the Year thanks to a splendid campaign during which he won four consecutive Group 1 races after suffering his only defeat when (inexplicably) finishing second to Night Of Thunder (Ire) in the 2,000 Guineas.

Another son of Invincible Spirit finished fifth in that 2,000 Guineas, Charm Spirit (Ire), and he too enjoyed great success as the season went on, putting together a hat-trick of Group 1 mile victories culminating in his defeat of Night Of Thunder in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on QIPCO Champions' Day.

Kingman does not rank as the most prolific of Invincible Spirit's 22 Group 1 winners. The fabulous Moonlight Cloud (GB) scored at the highest level six times, between 1300m and 1600m, and came very close to landing a Group 1 victory over six furlongs when failing by only a head to overhaul Black Caviar (Aus) in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2012, a year in which her sire finished third in the General Sires' Table of Great Britain and Ireland, beaten only by Galileo and Montjeu.

Having come so close to 2,000 Guineas glory with Kingman in 2014 and again the following year when Territories (Ire) finished second to Gleneagles (Ire), Invincible Spirit laid the ghost of those near misses to rest when Magna Grecia (Ire) won Britain's first Classic of 2019. Aside from his outstanding milers, Invincible Spirit has been represented by some wonderful sprinters including G1 July Cup winners Fleeting Spirit and Mayson (GB), G1 King's Stand Stakes winner Profitable (Ire) and the top-class sprinting juvenile Shalaa (Ire), successful in both the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Middle Park Stakes in 2015.

As Invincible Spirit heads into his well-earned retirement, Kingman stands as his natural heir. Having retired to Banstead Manor Stud in 2015, he was an instant success, coming up with the G2 Coventry Stakes winner Calyx (GB) in his first crop. Even more notably, his second crop contained the five-time Group 1-winning champion miler Palace Pier (GB). He has subsequently gone from strength to strength, with his stars in 2024 including the Classic winners Elmalka (GB) and Sparkling Plenty (Fr) as well as the G1 Prix de l'Opera winner Friendly Soul (GB).

Excellent a sire though Kingman is, he is not Invincible Spirit's most distinguished sire-son. That honour clearly falls to I Am Invincible (Aus), the most notable product of the four seasons during which Invincible Spirit shuttled to Chatswood Stud (Vic) in Australia early in his career. Although three-time Group 1 heroine Yosei (Aus) was a superior racehorse, I Am Invincible has become very special indeed.

Like Invincible Spirit, I Am Invincible took quite a long time to register the high-class form required to secure a place at stud, which he did in Adelaide as a four-year-old in the autumn of 2009 when he won a Group 3 sprint before chasing home Takeover Target (Aus) in the G1 Goodwood Handicap. He finally retired to Yarraman Park Stud in New South Wales, where he has been a revelation, as can be deduced from the path of his stud fee, which started out at $11,000 before hitting a peak of $302,500 in 2023. As that meteoric rise implies, he is a wonderful stallion. He has been Australia's champion sire for the past three seasons and is adept at producing both top two-year-olds and high-class horses who hold their form for several seasons. He looks at least as likely as Kingman to keep Invincible Spirit's line going in the years to come, and that is really saying something.

Invincible Spirit's influence will, of course, also flourish through his daughters. He is shaping up as an excellent broodmare sire, as his current sixth place in the table in Great Britain and Ireland confirms, with 2,000 Guineas hero Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) being his best current representative in this respect. If that horse can win the GI Breeders' Cup Mile (or, indeed, if last year's GI BC Juvenile Turf Sprint place-getter Starlust (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) can win the GI BC Turf Sprint), they will follow in the footsteps of Invincible Spirit's grandson Victoria Road (Ire) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}), successful in the GI BC Juvenile Turf in 2022.

Invincible Spirit has been a key component of Europe's stallion ranks for years, during which time he has been a great friend to many breeders as well as a true stalwart for the Irish National Stud. A further boon of his popularity was that it encouraged Tally-Ho Stud to take a chance on his younger three-parts brother Kodiac (Ire) (Danehill) in 2007, despite that horse never having won a black-type race. Like his sibling, Kodiac has turned out to be a wonderful stallion.

Invincible Spirit can now enjoy his retirement as we savour the fact that his name is likely to remain prominent in the pedigrees of good horses for many years to come.